This article helps in understanding the causes of WW1 and defining even the main causes of WW1. This will likely help as a good reference to how this tragic war started and the reasons why.
Causes of WW1 and Diplomatic Origins
On June 28, 1914, Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria and heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, was assassinated in Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb student. Though World War I was triggered by this assassination, the war's origins lie much farther back, in the complex web of alliances and counterbalances that developed between the various European powers over the course of the nineteenth century, following the final 1815 defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte at Waterloo. Napoleon's rise to power was, in turn, a direct consequence of the 1789 French Revolution, which overthrew the French monarchy.
Napoleon Bonaparte and the rise of nationalist sentiment - Main Causes of WW1
By the late eighteenth century, French society was on the verge of collapse. The old monarchy was ruling France by birthright and absolute authority. The structure of the French political system/society consisted of: a king on the top, the people on the bottom, with church and nobles somewhere at the upper-end. Over time friction occurred as the new social/economic class, the bourgeoisie rose in prominence. In time this new middle class began to push for reforms within the French political system and to demand political/social representation. In time, France's political/social systems became ripe for political change as the economy began to hit a reef. This was in no small measure due to two factors. The first being Louis XIV and his successors' lavish expenditures, such as the Palace of Versailles. It is estimated that by itself Versailles accounted for as much as a quarter of France's annual national income. Louis XIV and his successors also engaged France in a series of expensive wars such as the American Revolution, which drained the remaining financial reserves, and in turn rampant inflation. Many of the middle class were outraged when taxes were raised and their purchasing power was diminished by inflation. What began as a movement to fix France's broken economy and society became the Napoleonic Wars, a continent-wide struggle for power.
The French Revolution resulted in chaos and the ascent of Napoleon to power. Napoleon's armies marched all over Europe, bringing not only French control, but French ideas. The rise of ideas of nationalism, devotion and love for one's common people and ethnicity, increased in popularity during the Napoleonic Wars. Napoleon encouraged the spread of nationalism, which he saw in his troops, to better the French war machine. The French people began to feel pride in their culture and ethnicity. The world watched nationalism for the first time and saw the power the French gained from it. Following the Napoleonic Wars, all of Europe was sharing these ideas.
The Congress of Vienna - Causes of WW1
After Napoleon's final defeat at The Battle of Waterloo, the Congress of Vienna followed in 1815. The congress was organized by the main victors of the Napoleonic Wars: Britain, Prussia, Russia and Austria. The key figure of the congress was Austria's representative, Klemens von Metternich. Metternich advocated restoring Europe to the way it was before the French Revolution. He urged Europe to create a balance of power, where no European nation was stronger than another. He also created the concert of Europe, a system where nations would help each other to keep the old aristocracy in power. By preventing the single monarchy in a country from falling to nationalism it would prevent the entire continent from going up in flames under social revolution. If that were to ever happen, according to Metternich, Europe would be thrown into another continental war, as Napoleon and French Nationalism had shown. Metternich feared nationalism as a force that could tear apart multi-ethnic nations like Russia and the Austrian Empire.
The German Empire - Causes of WW1
In the years that followed the Congress of Vienna, conflicts began springing up all over Europe between those who cried out for change, and those who resisted it. By the mid-1800s, nationalism had become an evident force. A wave of unrest could be seen across the continent in the Revolution of 1848. The 1860s and early 1870s saw two great changes to the map: the unification of Italy and the unification of Germany. These two nations were formed on the basis of nationalism. German Unification was brought about by Prussia's "Iron Chancellor", Otto von Bismarck, through a series of wars from 1864–1871. As minister of Prussia, Bismarck gave a famous speech in 1862, including:
"Germany is not looking to Prussia's liberalism, but to her power. The great questions of the day will not be decided by speeches and majority decisions, this was the mistake of 1848, but by iron and blood."
The Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71 had brought not only the establishment of a powerful and dynamic German Empire, but also a legacy of animosity between France and Germany following the German annexation of the formerly French territory of Alsace-Lorraine. Under the political direction of her first Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, Germany secured her new position in Europe by an alliance with Austria-Hungary and a diplomatic understanding with Russia. Bismarck began pursuing alliances and peace treaties. He made peace with almost every nation in Europe except France. He feared greatly that a war might destroy the newborn nation he had created in the 1860s. By the time of Wilhelm I's death, a system of alliances kept a tight peace in Europe.
The ascension (1888) of Kaiser Wilhelm II brought to the German throne a young ruler determined to direct policy himself, despite his rash diplomatic judgement. After the 1890 elections, in which the centre and left parties made major gains, and due in part to his disaffection at inheriting the Chancellor who had guided his grandfather for most of his career, Wilhelm engineered Bismarck's resignation.
Much of the fallen Chancellor's work was undone in the following decades, as Wilhelm failed to renew the 1887 Reinsurance Treaty with Russia, presenting republican France with the opportunity to conclude (1891–94) a full alliance with the Russian Empire. Worse was to follow, as Wilhelm undertook (1897–1900) the creation of a German navy capable of threatening Britain's century-old naval mastery, prompting the Anglo-French Entente Cordiale of 1904 and its expansion (1907) to include Russia in the Triple Entente.
Rivalry among the powers was exacerbated from the 1880s by the scramble for colonies which brought much of Africa and Asia under European rule in the following quarter-century. Under pressure from certain groups, even the anti-imperialistic Bismarck agreed to the chase for overseas Empire, adding to Anglo-German tension as German acquisitions in Africa and the Pacific threatened to impinge upon British strategic and commercial interests. Wilhelm's support for Moroccan independence from France, Britain's new strategic partner, provoked the Tangier Crisis of 1905. During the Second Moroccan or Agadir Crisis (1911), a German naval presence in Morocco tested the Anglo-French coalition once again.
A key ingredient in the emerging diplomatic powder-keg was the growth of powerful nationalist aspirations among the Balkan states, which each looked to Austria-Hungary or Russia for support. The rise of anti-Austrian circles in Serbia following a 1903 palace coup contributed to a further crisis in 1908 over Austria's unilateral annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, German pressure forcing a humiliating climbdown on the part of a Russia weakened (1905) by defeat at the hands of Japan and subsequent revolutionary disorder.
Alarm at Russia's unexpectedly rapid recovery after 1909 fueled sentiment among German ruling circles in favour of a pre-emptive war to break alleged Entente "encirclement" before Russian rearmament could tip the strategic balance decisively against Germany and Austria-Hungary. By 1913 both France and Germany were planning to extend military service, while Britain had entered into a naval convention and military discussions with France during the previous year.
The outbreak - Causes of WW1
Austrian regional security concerns grew with the near-doubling of neighbouring Serbia's territory as a result of the Balkan Wars of 1912–1913. Many in the Austrian leadership, not least Emperor Franz Joseph, and Conrad von Hötzendorf, worried about Serbian nationalist agitation in the southern provinces of the Empire; they were still haunted by the memories of the Piedmontese inspired campaigns against the Austrian Italian provinces in 1859. Just as France had backed Piedmont in the campaign culminating in the Battle of Solferino, they worried that Russia would back Serbia to annex Slavic areas of Austria. The feeling was that it was better to destroy Serbia before they were given the opportunity to launch a campaign.
Some members of the Austrian government also felt that a campaign in Serbia would be the perfect remedy to the internal political problems of the Empire. Many of them were frustrated by the power of the Hungarian government in the Empire. In 1914 the government of the Austro-Hungarian Empire had a "dualistic" structure. Austria and Hungary had essentially separate governments under one monarch. The Austrian government retained control over foreign policy, but was still dependent on the Hungarians for such things as budgetary approval. Often the Hungarian leadership, under István Tisza refused Austrian requests for things such as increased military spending. In hopes of ending the political gridlock that this caused, many hoped to form a federation, or at least triadic monarchy. The solution was seen in increasing the numbers of Slavs in the Empire to balance the Magyar population.
Franz Ferdinand's assassination in June 1914 provided the opportunity sought by some Austrian leaders for a reckoning with the smaller Slav kingdom. The Sarajevo conspirators were alleged by the Austro-Hungarian authorities to have been armed by the shadowy Black Hand, a pan-Serb nationalist grouping with links to Serbian ruling circles. These links have proven to be somewhat dubious since then. In fact, Serbian government officials were eager not to antagonize their stronger northern neighbour and had ordered border officials to ensure Serbian radicals could not enter Bosnia or other portions of Austria-Hungary. However, since they were looking for an excuse, these considerations mattered little to Austro-Hungarian politicians.
With German backing, Austria-Hungary, acting primarily under the influence of Foreign Affairs Minister Leopold von Berchtold, sent an effectively unfulfillable 10-point ultimatum to Serbia (July 23, 1914), to be accepted within 48 hours.
Austria-Hungary demanded that the Serbian government undertake the following:
To suppress any publication which incites to hatred and contempt of the Monarchy . . .
To dissolve immediately the society styled Narodna Odbrana..and to proceed in the same manner against the other societies . . which engage in propaganda against [Austria]
To eliminate without delay from public instruction in Serbia, both as regards the teaching body and the methods of instruction, all that serves or might serve to foment the propaganda against Austria-Hungary
To remove from the military service and the administration in general all officers guilty of propaganda against [Austria--names to be given over by the Austrian govt.]
To accept the collaboration in Serbia of organs of [A-H govt.] in the suppression of the subversive movement directed against the territorial integrity of the Monarchy
To take judicial proceedings against the accessories to the plot of 28 June who are on Serbian territory; Organs delegated by [A-H] will take part in the investigations relating thereto
To proceed without delay to the arrest of [two named persons implicated according to the preliminary investigation undertaken by Austria]
To prevent by effective measures the cooperation of [Serbia] in the illicit traffic in arms and explosives across the frontier . . . .
To furnish [Austria] with explanations regarding the unjustifiable utterances of high Serbian officials both in Serbia and abroad, who . . . have not hesitated since the outrage of 28 June to express themselves . . in terms of hostility towards [Austria]
To notify [Austria] without delay of the execution of the[se] measures . . .
The Serbian government agreed to all but one of the demands, noting that participation in its judicial proceedings by a foreign power would violate its constitution. Austria-Hungary nonetheless broke off diplomatic relations (July 25) and declared war (July 28) through a telegram sent to the Serbian government.
The Russian government, which had pledged in 1909 to uphold Serbian independence in return for Serbia's acceptance of the Bosnia annexation, mobilized its military reserves on July 30 following a breakdown in crucial telegram communications between Wilhelm and Tsar Nicholas II (the famous "Willy and Nicky" correspondence), who was under pressure by his military staff to prepare for war. Germany demanded (July 31) that Russia stand down her forces, but the Russian government persisted, as demobilization would have made it impossible to re-activate its military schedule in the short term. Germany declared war against Russia on August 1 and, two days later, against the latter's ally France.
The outbreak of the conflict is often attributed to the alliances established over the previous decades — Germany-Austria-Italy vs. France-Russia; Britain and Serbia being aligned with the latter. In fact, none of the alliances were activated in the initial outbreak, though Russian general mobilization and Germany's declaration of war against France were motivated by fear of the opposing alliance being brought into play.
Britain's declaration of war against Germany (August 4) was officially the result not of her understandings with France and Russia (Britain was technically allied to neither power), but of Germany's invasion of Belgium on August 4, 1914, whose independence Britain had guaranteed to uphold in the Treaty of London of 1839, and which stood astride the planned German route for invasion of Russia's ally France. Unofficially, it was already generally accepted in government that Britain could not remain neutral, since without the co-operation of France and Russia her colonies in Africa and India would be under threat, while German occupation of the French Atlantic ports would be an even larger threat to British trade as a whole.
Theory of responsibility - Causes of WW1
Many different hypotheses have been proposed to explain who is to blame for the outbreak of the first world war, and even today this question still exists. The Fischer-Geise theory is a famous such concept, deduced by Fritz Fischer and Immanuel Geise , by which, in all, blame was placed upon Germany. But it still remains a somewhat obscure aspect of the war.
The first battles - Causes of WW1
Some of the very first actions of the war occurred far from Europe, including Africa and the Pacific Ocean. On August 8, 1914 the German protectorate of Togoland was invaded by a combined French and British force. On August 10, German forces based in South-West Africa attacked South Africa, and on August 11, Australian forces landed on the island of Neu-Pommern, which was part of German New Guinea. Within several months German forces in the Pacific had surrendered, or had been driven out, whereas sporadic and often fierce fighting continued in Africa for the remainder of the war.
In Europe, Germany and Austria-Hungary suffered from miscommunication regarding each army's intentions. Germany had originally guaranteed to support Austria-Hungary's invasion of Serbia, but the interpretations of this idea differed. Austro-Hungarian leaders thought that Germany would cover their northern flank against Russia, but Germany had planned for Austria-Hungary to focus the majority of its troops on Russia, while Germany dealt with France on the Western Front. This confusion forced the Austro-Hungarian army to split its troop concentrations from the south in order to meet the Russians in the north. The Serb army, which was coming up from the south of the country, was gaining numbers and would meet the Austrian army at Cer on August 12 1914.
The Serbians were set up in defensive positions against the Austrians. The first attack came on August 16th, between parts of the 21st Austro-Hungarian division and parts of the Serbian Combined division. In harsh night-time fighting, the battle ebbed and flowed, until the Serbian line was rallied under the leadership of Stepa Stepanovic. Three days later the Austrians retreated across the Danube, having suffered 21,000 casualties against 16,000 Serbian casualties. This marked the first allied victory of the war. The Austrians had not achieved their main goal of eliminating Serbia, and it became increasingly likely that Germany would be forced to maintain forces on both fronts.
Germany's plan (named the Schlieffen plan) to deal with the Franco-Russian alliance involved delivering a knock-out blow to the French and then turning to deal with the more slowly mobilized Russian army. Rather than attack France directly, it was deemed prudent to attack France from the north. To do so, the German army had to march through Belgium. Germany demanded this free passage from the Belgian government, promising that Belgium would be Germany's firm ally if this was agreed to. When Belgium refused, Germany invaded and began marching through Belgium anyway, after first invading and securing tiny Luxembourg. It soon encountered resistance before the forts of the Belgian city of Liège. Britain sent an army to France, which advanced into Belgium.
The delays brought about by the resistance of the Belgian, French and British forces and the unexpectedly rapid mobilization of the Russians upset the German plans. Russia attacked in East Prussia, diverting German forces intended for the Western Front. Germany defeated Russia in a series of battles collectively known as the (second) Battle of Tannenberg, but this diversion allowed French and British forces to finally halt the German advance on Paris at the First Battle of the Marne (September 1914) as the Central Powers were forced into fighting a war on two fronts.
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